Growing your business is hard and this is especially true if you’re a small organization.  Wouldn’t it be great to learn from a seasoned marketer with a track record of growing revenue and profits while strengthening teams and building brands? Well, this is your chance. From the fundamentals to lessons you can only learn from over 30 years of experience, this episode is full of invaluable advice.

In 2020 many brands pulled back their advertising and marketing. To ensure they could continue to connect and be helpful to their audiences, many significantly increased their social media efforts. In today’s episode, I’m talking with Miruna Dragomir, Head of Marketing for Planable. Miruna takes us behind the scenes to show us how some of the social media teams that grew the most in 2020 are structured, how they organize their work, and the most effective strategies they use.  

If you’re starting your career, your consultancy, or small business, and want to position and differentiate yourself in the marketplace, elevate your credibility, and grow your influence, your personal brand is key. In this episode, we go through the steps you need to take to establish the brand you want to have. From the questions, you need to ask yourself before you start, to the two "must-have" platforms you need to be at. 

Brands are expected to demonstrate their commitment towards a more sustainable future. But what does it mean to be a sustainable business and how can brands become more sustainable while ensuring financial viability?   In today’s episode, I speak with Chad Park, VP of Sustainability and Citizenship at The Co-operators, Founding Director of the Energy Futures Lab, and founding member of The Natural Step Canada team. Chad shares great advice on how brands can become more sustainable.  

Gamification offers promising results and the flexibility to start fairly easily and inexpensively, making it an attractive tool for organizations of all sizes and budgets. In this two-part series, I speak with Oliver Šimko, the founder of Luducrafts, a gamification design studio designing solutions for companies around the world such as Microsoft and Jaguar. Oliver shares the principles of gamification and how to use this tool effectively.

In this two-part series, I speak with Oliver Šimko, the founder of Luducrafts, a gamification design studio. Oliver shares with us how gamification, the use of game design principles, behavioural science, and design thinking can create better products, services, and companies. In this episode, learn the design principles behind gamification and how you can apply them to address social issues, create healthy habits, driving engagement, and much more.

We like to think we’re rational beings, but as our own experience shows us facts, logic, and rational arguments alone are not enough to persuade or create the actions we want. If it did, we would all eat healthy, have active lifestyles, and not be glued to our phones.  What has proven to be a powerful tool to move us into action is storytelling. But how can we use stories for our organization and what makes a good story?

Entrepreneurs, small business owners, and non-profits have very limited time and resources. How should they use the little time and resources they have to compete with wealthier and more established brands? What will bring the biggest value?

When you’re a small team culture is easier to manage but as you grow and hire more people, it becomes harder to preserve. It can easily grow and morph into something else. How do you create the right culture and maintain it as your organization grows? In this episode, I share six key principles that successful brands have applied to do just that.

2020 impacted brands around the globe. While many brands suffered significantly, others experienced record-breaking growth.  What factors lead some brands to succeed and others to struggle? What are some consumer trends we need to pay attention to and be part of? And what are some opportunities worth exploring?

Chances are that your audience will first hear or read about you before you ever have a chance to engage with them in person. The language you use, your tone of voice and what you choose to say are key to differentiate you from the competition and to persuade your audience to choose you. In this episode, I speak with Rob Marsh, co-founder of The Copywriter Club. Rob is an experienced writer that now trains other writers on how to write to turn readers into clients.

In this episode, we talk to Cian Murphy, Co-Managing Director of nfpSynergy, a research firm based in London, UK.  Cian is an expert in quantitative research design and analysis. Cian shares with us a research model used to better understand the drivers and barriers behind audience decisions and the latest trends and challenges corporations and charities face today.

In this episode, I talk with Sarah Mueller, SVP of Marketing and Development for A&W Restaurants Inc. Sarah tells us the story of the over 100-year-old brand. From its humble beginnings, to how it became the means for so many to achieve the American dream, to the many disrupting changes in ownership and strategies. This is a story of resilience and of how a brand had to look to its past to find its future.

Hot Wheels is a brand success story. Sold in over 150 countries, it's the best selling toy in the world. But in a digital world of mobile phones and on-demand content, how can Hot Wheels compete with the infinite choices kids have and continue to be as iconic as it has been for the past 50 years? Jason Horowitz, SVP of US Mktg. at Mattel and Head of Global Digital and Media for Hot Wheels is my guest in this episode. Jason walks us through how they found the answer to this question.

With everything that is happening in the world right now, we’ve seen brands struggle on how to best react.  Global market trends and the significant importance of younger generations have intensified the need and urgency for brands to do much more than provide a quality product or service.  In this episode, we explore the pressures that are at play and what brands need to consider as they move forward.

Protecting your brand starts with registering your trademark but it needs to go well beyond that. As the CEO of the International Trademark Association, Etienne Sanz De Acedo, my guest on the podcast, has a good handle on what it takes to protect brands. With offices and representatives around the globe, and headquartered in New York City, Etienne walks us through what brands should do to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation.

Culture is not just about having a positive work environment, it’s about having the right team, that acts the right way and makes the right decisions. This is particularly true during critical times, such as the coronavirus crisis we all find ourselves in at the moment. How do you build the right culture? Find out in this episode with Lorne Rubis, culture, and leadership expert what leaders need to do to build a resilient culture.

We’re still amid the pandemic and by now most organizations have cut costs, but now brands need to go beyond reacting to the challenges and look for opportunities. We’re in crisis management mode and the instinct is to protect and defend, but brands that do innovate are much more likely to survive and potentially even thrive. In this episode, I share three essential elements to help brands innovate.

In this episode I speak with David Lemley, president and chief strategist of Retail Vodoo, about the main external challenges brands face in their pursuit to stand out in overcrowded markets and how to overcome these challenges. Learning to navigate external challenges is critical to success. Just as important, but often not addressed, is the ability to identify internal blocks or blind spots, that may be stopping brands to evolve or do what is needed to remain relevant and outlast competitors.

The two questions I’ve been getting the most are, “Should we continue to market? and "Do we need to engage or talk about the crisis?”. Although sending emails to everyone you ever engaged with is not the right approach, not acknowledging the crisis, can make your brand seem out of touch or worse, insensitive to what consumers are going through.   So, what should brands do? In this episode I walk you through 6 guiding principles to help brands navigate this unchartered territory.   

I don’t think anyone was quite prepared for the COVID-19 crisis we’re all facing right now. Unfortunately, this crisis will likely severely affect many organizations, for profit and non-profit. Today's episode is an encore episode. Although the examples shared are quite different in nature and scale (by a lot!) the principles and best practices shared, still apply. It’s my hope that the advice in this episode can help guide some organizations through this crisis.

In this episode, I speak to Brent Baldwin, head of brand marketing for the Harlem Globetrotters. Brent shares the history of the globetrotters, the evolution of the brand and how focusing on their purpose is helping the organization create clarity on who they are and attract the right audience and talent.

Many brands leave to chance how front facing staff will interpret the brand and create the right interactions with external audiences. This is at best a missed opportunity and at worst a risk. In this episode, I talk to Chris Wallace, Co-Founder and President of Innerview Group. Chris shares the 3 steps to successfully engage and transfer the brand sentiment to staff and the 3 most effective tactics to do so.  

In this episode, Usman shares with us in detail what the selection and training process is like for a potential MacDonald’s owner and operator. This is a grueling process by which McDonald’s is able to select the right people to represent the brand. McDonald’s train them in how to become a successful operator while immersing them in the McDonald’s brand.